It's A Wonderful Life
by IantojJackh
Summary: In Full Circle, Ianto saved a mortal Jack from making a huge mistake and now it's Jack's turn to return the favour, but will he get there in time or will the fabric of space and time begin to unravel?


**Title**: It's a Wonderful Life  
**Fandom**: Torchwood  
**Rating**: PG  
**Length**: 2774 words  
**Characters**: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones and Owen Harper  
**Summary**: In Full Circle, Ianto saved a mortal Jack from making a huge mistake and now it's Jack's turn to return the favour, but will he get there in time or will the fabric of space and time begin to unravel?  
**Content notes**: Possible trigger of Suicide attempt  
**Disclaimer**: Not mine. Just borrowing for a short bit.  
**Author notes:** written for Amnesty round at **fan-flashworks** using previous prompt 'Borrowed Title.' Also filled the hc-bingo square 'job related trauma'. Major kudos to **lilyrose225** for her beta skills. Summer colds suck big time and I feel like crap so make a writer smile today. My ears feel as if they are being prodded with sharp pointy things.

* * *

**_It's a Wonderful Life_**

It was easy to forget your birthday after living several centuries, witnessing, and being a part of some the worst atrocities of the known universe. Jack knew his date of birth was buried somewhere deep in the records of the archives, which meant that only one other soul knew what his birthday was. The Gregorian calendar was still kept in 51st century Boeshane which meant that Jack's birthday was an easily definable day. It was also known on Earth as Christmas Eve.

Now on a cold December evening on the eve before Christmas, Jack sat alone in the hub after sending the rest of the team home to celebrate with whomever they chose. It was in these quiet moments that Jack did his best thinking. He scratched his head, thinking about the night in the warehouse with Ianto many months ago and the memories that returned to him from the night on Paradiso Nirvana as Ianto's body was flush with his. Jack was completely lost as to how he would overcome Ianto's betrayal and become the other half of a very happy couple enjoying their honeymoon. Jack had started to believe that perhaps he was not the man on the other end of the comm that night.

Jack could not shake the thoughts of the Welshman who was just entering the third week of his four week suspension, due back just after the New Year, a new year with a fresh start. The immortal captain had thought for a while that there was something genuine between him and Ianto, but now that all felt like a big lie. Ianto had just used him to get what he needed and that upset Jack, more than it should have.

"Shit!" Jack exclaimed as he jumped to his feet and took off running immediately. There had been one part of that night of Paradiso Nirvana that he did not recall until just now.

_I took a shitload of pills six years ago and it didn't work again. I thought that someone, somewhere was telling me that the world wanted me alive. Shortly after the second attempt I started to date the man who would become my husband._

Jack wanted to kick himself for missing that important clue and he hoped that his gut feeling was wrong. All the signs had been there: Ianto had become more withdrawn the last couple of days, personal hygiene was nowhere to be found, food that had been brought over was left untouched and the anger toward Jack was gone and in its place indifference.

Jack had to wonder if he was meant to save Ianto in order to complete the circle. He leapt out of his chair and raced to the med bay to grab the supplies needed to help someone who had overdosed.

During his dash to the SUV Jack called Owen, who did not sound happy to hear from Jack. "Meet me at Ianto's place ASAP!"

"Why? I'm in the middle of something. Can't it wait?" Owen was not motivated to pay the man who almost got him killed a Christmas Eve visit.

"No. I think Ianto took some pills. You have to save him." There was an edge of desperation in Jack's voice that he did not intend to be there.

"Why? He almost got us all killed! You should have retconned him or put a bullet in his head when everything first happened." Apparently not all doctors adhered to the Hippocratic Oath in every situation, especially when the potential patient almost got them killed. "Let what was supposed to have happened, happen." What Owen meant was that Ianto should have been eliminated after his betrayal and now everything was balancing out. Perhaps the half bottle vodka he had drunk, let the semi-buried hatred surface in the worst way.

"Owen! You're drunk! Meet me at Ianto's flat. I'm not asking. It's an order." Jack hung up his mobile and left no room for argument.

Jack drove faster than normal and cut the drive to Ianto's flat in half. His heart was beating so fast that it was the only sound he could hear. _Whoosh. Whoosh. Thump. Thump._ In the back of his mind there was a nagging fear that he might already be too late—and what that would mean for his existence?

The panicked captain used the key he had to Ianto's flat to let himself in, but he found the door chained. "Ianto let me in," Jack called through the semi-opened door. There was no response and seconds later there was a loud crash from the bedroom. That was all Jack needed to hear and he reared back and kicked the door with all his might, rendering the chain useless.

On the bedroom floor, Jack found a semiconscious Ianto on the floor beside the bookcase he had brought down with him.

"Ianto!" Jack was kneeling next to Ianto in under a second. "Can you hear me?" He cradled the younger man in his arms, lightly shaking him to get a response.

"Leave...alone...want...die...hate you," Ianto's speech slurred greatly, but he did not have the energy to fight. In just a few minutes all the pain would finally be gone and he would no longer be suffering.

"Oh no you don't," Jack yelled and tried to carry Ianto to the bathroom, but he was dead weight and felt like a ton of bricks. "You saved my life now I have to save yours." Jack did not want this here, but Ianto left him no choice. Jack did what he needed to do to induce vomiting while waiting for Owen to arrive. "It's not your time to die. You've got to fight." He tried to get Ianto to vomit the undigested pills still in his system and after a few attempts he was successful.

It felt like an eternity before Owen finally arrived. "Fuck Jack," the medic said as soon as he arrived and saw the scene before him. "What and how much did he take?"

Jack held up the unlabeled pill bottle and shrugged. "A shit load." It was the phrase Ianto had told him long ago and it was the truth.

"Jack, he should be in the hospital. Ianto needs more help than I can provide." Owen shook his head, wondering what was going on in Jack's head.

The captain shook his head vehemently. "Ianto wouldn't want that."

"I'm pretty sure Ianto would rather he not wake up."

"Is that anyway a doctor should talk about a patient? He's not meant to die tonight." Jack said with conviction.

"No, but as a person almost killed by his choices I'm not one to forgive easily." Owen tried to stay mad. "And how do you know he's not meant to die tonight?"

"Can't tell you that." Jack said cryptically as he helped Owen get Ianto into bed and let Owen begin to treat Ianto.

Owen rolled his eyes at the vague response from his boss. It was one of the many secrets the enigmatic Captain kept. He wanted to know why Jack had broken every single protocol when it came to dealing with Ianto, knowing if it had been him to try to save his girlfriend he would have been shot. "You aren't sleeping with him, are you? Please don't tell me this is all over a piece of ass?"

"That is not relevant here." That was Jack's way to all but admit there was once something between him and Ianto and Jack could not say that in six years he would marry Ianto or that man would save his life while on his honeymoon.

"Whatever." Owen knew he would not get any answers and put his full attention to saving his patient using both conventional and alien means. It was close to an hour before the doctor was satisfied that all the pills had been purged from Ianto's system. "One tea-boy saved from himself. I've got him hooked up to IV fluids to keep him hydrated."

"Thank you Owen." Jack said with relief as he sat next to Ianto and took the man's hand into his, lightly stroking the back of Ianto's hand with his thumb.

"Don't mention it. Maybe one day you can tell me why you were so insistent on keeping him alive. You can deal with the pissed off Welshman when he wakes up." Owen sighed as he watched Jack get sentimental. "Christ, Jack whatever he said to you, it wasn't real. He played you to save his girlfriend."

Jack shook his head. "It's not like that. I owe Ianto a lot."

"What could you possibly owe him?" Owen was truly at a loss as to why Jack wanted Ianto saved.

"That's classified. And that's all I will say on the matter."

"He better be a god between the sheets for all this. "

"It's not always about sex with me. Now just drop it." He remembered when he asked Ianto to come with him that night on Paradiso Nirvana and Ianto had refused, saying his husband was everything to him and Jack felt the love Ianto had for the husband he would not leave. Jack had always longed to have a love that strong and it now was just within reach. He just had to get Ianto to stop hating Jack and more importantly himself.

"Well, all right then. It looks like we are going to stay the night. I'm going to raid the cupboards and see what there's to eat here. If there is any change let me know." Owen grumbled and left the room, knowing they were in for a long night.

Several times during the night Owen walked in on Jack stroking Ianto's hair and whispering to him. Owen was curious what was being said, but Jack clammed up the second he saw Owen. The last time Owen checked on the other men, he found Jack asleep with a protective hold on Ianto.

* * *

When the next morning arrived—Christmas morning—Ianto felt like utter crap when he slowly woke up. It was like a hangover, but a million times worse. There was an IV in his arm and a heavy arm across his middle. Ianto's mental state was in tatters at yet another failure. That's what his life was, a series of failures, one after another.

"You're finally awake," Owen appeared at the door. He was not completely ready to forgive Ianto for the Cyberwoman incident, but he had softened a bit toward the troubled young man. "So what do you have on Harkness other than your looks?"

"Nothing!" Ianto frowned realising Jack was the one asleep next to him. "Why did you save me?"

"Jack ordered me to. You'll have to ask him why. He's broken protocol after protocol to make sure you stay alive." Owen said with no emotion as he went over to remove the IV from Ianto's arm. "Now that you're awake I'm leaving. Tell Jack if he needs anything to call me." And like the wind Owen was gone.

Ianto looked down at the sleeping man next to him and wondered why Jack thought he was worth saving. "Fuck you," he said with a hard slap across Jack's face. That should get his attention.

"Why am I worth saving?" Ianto asked, ready to give Jack something worse and much more painful than a slap. He knew from the employee handbook in London that the punishment for his transgressions should have been Retcon or death but Jack was never one to play by the rules.

"Because you are worth it. A very long time ago, I was at the lowest point in my life and I was about to end it all, but someone—on their honeymoon no less—showed me that suicide was not the way out."

"I doubt someone on their honeymoon is in a position to be talking someone out of suicide."

"That's what I said to him, but he said that he'd been where I was and twice he had tried to kill himself. It was after that second attempt that he realised that the world had other plans for him. He also brought up several valid and thoughtful points."

"I suppose you want me to ask you what those points were?" Ianto asked dryly.

"I was going to tell you anyway." Jack explained what a Ianto six years from now told him so very long ago, trying to be vague enough so Ianto would not uncover the truth about who saved Jack that night. Jack did tell Ianto everything else about him, but Jack highly suspected Ianto already knew he was immortal and that he wasn't from this time.

"And you actually believed that." Ianto rolled his eyes. "I didn't take you for the sentimental type."

Jack sighed and shook his head, "I'm not. There was just something about him that I believed."

Ianto snorted in disbelief mixed with a tad of disgust, wanting Jack to be as far from him as possible but still oddly drawn to him. "It's kind of pathetic when you think about it. You took the name of the husband of the man. Why? In hopes of finding that man again and stealing his husband away from him? Sounds about right for you. If you wanted him so badly, why not just take him?"

"He didn't want to leave his husband. I couldn't just take him—who was I to deny him the happiness he fought so hard for?" Jack explained his feelings today on the matter and not how he had felt that day. "I tried to find him again but had no luck."

Ianto crossed his arms defiantly, "So you are paying him back by saving me? Why don't you find someone else to save? You are the last person I need or want help from."

* * *

The bickering and sometimes full out fighting got downright nasty. Ianto fought Jack at every turn as he tried to get the young Welshman to fight to live again.

There were moments when it seemed like Jack was getting through to Ianto, but in a split second Ianto was back where he was when Jack found him.

Jack was getting desperate and was on the verge of telling Ianto everything, telling Ianto that he had to be alive in six years and he was the man who would save his life. That he knew just how happy Ianto would be and one day he'd be feeling like he was on top of the universe.

It was New Year's Eve and there only minutes left to the year and Jack had not left Ianto's side despite the protests. "Ianto, please listen. A new year is about to begin and I'm giving you the opportunity to put everything that happened this year behind you and start with a clean slate. Nothing will be held against you. The pain it doesn't get better, you just have to work with it. There are plenty of people who will miss you if you give up on life." Jack looked into Ianto's eyes, which seemed like vacant slots with only a glimmer of life and it was that tiny spark that Jack wanted to nurture into a burning flame.

"Would you miss me?"

"More than you could ever know."

"Why? I hurt you more than anyone."

"Because we are more alike than you realise. We can make a good team, us two. There was never two more handsome men in Cardiff than us. Please just give me a chance and you won't regret it. Just say you don't want to die and promise to never give up on yourself." Jack said hopefully as he held out his slightly trembling hand. His life was just as much at stake. One false move and the universe could literally unravel.

"I don't want to die. I need help." Ianto finally accepted the proffered hand of help.

"I'm here to help. I won't let you down," Jack hugged Ianto reassuringly, letting him know that he meant every word.

* * *

Jack knew it was not going to be an easy road to recovery, but as a wise man once told him many years ago: It gets better. And at this moment, Jack realised everything had come full circle; he had saved Ianto so that in six years Ianto would stop his mortal self from taking his own life. Jack took comfort in that he knew there were great times ahead for both of them. There was no guarantee that the path would be smooth, but they would get there eventually.

And so the book opened on a love story that would one day transcend time and space.


End file.
